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| Sunday, 26 January 2003 |
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Letters |  |
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
According to an article in the 'Sunday Observer' newspaper a special bus service, for women only, will come into operation to keep perverts at bay. This is a very good idea and the proposal is most welcome. But how long it will last is a matter for conjecture. Sometime back, a similar service was commenced from Mattegoda, but it lasted only for a day or two. Unless there is statutory provision to prevent mixed travel in buses, the present practice is likely to continue unabated. This is the practical view. The only solution to the problem, as far as I see, is that the conductors should be instructed not to allow men to get into buses meant for women only or vice versa. Discussions, conferences, advice and warnings, bear no fruit, unless the proposal is strictly enforced to prevent perverts having their way. Sometimes we see such things happen, but turn blind eye and don't get involved with such men. It has been suggested that every seventh bus leaving a bus terminus be allocated for women only. If this is done, there will be a practical problem involving time and difficulties for women to get to their places of work in time. The duration taken for the 7th bus may exceed more than 30 minutes. So, women going go work will have to lag behind for the 7th bus. As we all know, most women are late-comers to work, after attending to their work at home. To waste further time would mean further delay in reporting to duty. I would suggest that every other bus be made available only for women, instead of the 7th bus. The proposals made by the Committee is good as far as they could be implemented fairly and squarely. ARYADASA RATNASINGHE, Conceptual capacity and strategic competence Almost every field of scientific endeavour is rapidly leading us towards a perception of the world as being an ongoing process of change that has neither beginning nor end and of ourselves as being parts of the chaotic and relative behaviour of this process. Within this emergent perspective that is rapidly consolidating itself and spreading throughout human awareness; it becomes very clear that any attempt at preserving any status quo amounts to a self defeating attempt to stop this ongoing process of change and that "terrorist groups" are no more than an extreme response to such attempts to prevent change. What would make sense therefore would be to recognize unceasing change and not the preservation of any status quo as being a central axiom of the conceptual foundations of human civilization. It would then become strategically competent to re-orient our social institutions and open lines of communication with all these people and organizations and engage them within the mainstream of democratic dialogue through the construction of mechanisms aimed at facilitating change, rather than attempting to destroy them in order to protect a status quo. In engaging the LTTE rather than persisting in a perverse attempt at achieving its destruction the UNF government now in power has for the time being successfully positioned the island as the most likely location for the emergence and consolidation of a new developmental paradigm based on government through visionary projections and the articulation of credible strategies for their realisation. Nirmalan Dhas, The sari monopoly - a response These are a few comments on the two letters by Leeza and Ayesha, which appeared in the Sunday Observer of December 15. Leeza faults the Principal of Prince of Wales and the 'Citizen-Moratuwa' for insisting that women should wear sari. She further states the Principal should be taken before the Human Rights Tribunal for "religious discrimination" or charged before in Court of Law for human rights violation. Leeza should be thankful that she is living in Sri Lanka where she can contemplate resorting to such legal recourse. In some countries the sari is frowned upon (she herself admits that some religions consider the sari indecent) and an uncovering of woman's head is spurned and there are no Human Rights Tribunals and Courts of Law, as we know in Sri Lanka, to defend the rights of those who do not belong to that religion. She interestingly says dress manifests ethnicity and culture. Otherwise we will all be conforming to a universal and monotonous dress code. She gives a number of examples where the Arab burqa is not adopted: salwar kameez - Pakistani Muslim; the sarong kabaya -Malay Muslim; by the way, what is the cultural dress of the Sri Lankan Muslim, if they culturally belong to the nation? For hundred of years, the Sri Lankan muslim adopted the sari and the purdah. One would have thought they did this because the sari dressed modestly with the purdah was culturally and religiously becoming. Coming to Ayesha's letter: She rightly says modesty is the hallmark of a well-mannered women. But modesty is not only a matter of dress. Modesty is more importantly a quality of the mind. One can be modestly dressed but very immodest in thought and action. One can commit adultery not only in action but in thought also. To call a woman covered from head to toe modest can also be a legalistic interpretation of modesty. She fails to understand the use of the phrase "Taliban type of dress code." I think what Citizen-Moratuwa meant by that phrase was the intolerant insistence of a single way of dressing as the correct way. Asking people to dress modestly is different from prescribing a single dress code for all, on threat of punishment, as the Taliban was doing and Al-Qaeda insists. Finally, Ayesha fails to distinguish between a young girl dressing up in order to be cynosure (attractive) to the opposite sex of her age and another dressing to seduce men. The first kind of "public display" (a phrase Ayesha uses) is not at all bad. In fact all nature (plants, animals, birds) use this technique of public display to attract the opposite sex. It seems the God ordained way of keeping the species alive. A rational fundamentalist, Strategy in approach to the peace The main aspiration of all communities in Sri Lanka at present is to have peace once again. The people of this country have undergone untold privations especially during the last two decades. It is indeed refreshing to observe that during the last five or six years there has emerged a common forum of the clergy - leaders of the laity of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims, who have jointly contributed to peace. It augurs well in the new year 2003 that there should be further advances for achieving more rapport and empathy among the masses by their participation in such activities as religious ceremonies, pilgrimages, sports, drama, music, dancing and traditional Sri Lankan hospitality to firmly build trust and confidence in the peace process. Accordingly, there should be a tendency to prevent especially the younger generation from being exposed to indiscipline and criminal acts. I also suggest that the Buddhist clergy and their learned laity should deliver more sermons and participate in discussions in the Tamil and English media. The other religious denominations should follow suit. D. KURUNERU, A lady customer of Pramuka Bank withdrew cash from her account when the Bank's cash counters were open to the public. The money she placed safely in her hand-bag. Suddenly, a team of Examiners from Central Bank stepped in and sealed Pramuka Bank to facilitate their examination work of Pramuka Bank documents. The lady, since attending to all her Bank work for the day, stepped out hopefully to reach home. Like a Bolt from the Blues, to her utter surprise an Examiner ordered the search of the lady's hand-bag certainly not for bombs in this instance. Failing to find any Pramuka Bank documents, this "smart examiner" of documents considered it wise to pic the "Paper" money packet she so carefully concealed in her hand-bag beyond the easy reach of even a master pick-pocket. This "enthusiastic" examiner, who categorised or grouped the withdrawal of "paper" money packet as Pramuka Bank documents he is empowered to seize by authority did so against moral principles and all known cannons of decency. Adding insult to injury, the middle degree intelligence and knowledge of an examiner, miserably failed to issue an official receipt for the cash bundle picked off the hand bag. If this ignominious conduct is not a Case for Violation of Human Rights - could it be classed as a case of picking and selecting the best part of the bunch in the hand-bag - I wonder! C.L. Terence Fernando, Properties of Sri Lankans abroad Sri Lankans living abroad have problems with their properties in Sri Lanka. This has affected a number of people. Unfortunately we do not have a government department or any other institute to look after our properties even though we like to pay the expenses for the same. Sri Lankans working aboard send money to their dependants and save them in Sri Lankan banks. Although we have rented out houses in the proper way such as signing bonds with lawyers we are still under risk. In most of the cases, tenants will not leave the place as per the agreement and will try to create problems and act as if they are the owners. Tenants will demand huge amount of money to leave the place or we have to go to courts for settlement. Again there is no rule to safeguard us. Another problem is relatives who think that they can easily create problems and get ownership of these properties. They will not allow selling or leasing the properties especially when they are living adjacent to the same properties. Once the families or individuals leave the country for employment, leaving behind their property, most of the relatives try to make it their own. I believe that the government can give us a solution through the Foreign Employment Bureau or the banks where we deposit our money. They should consider this as a serious problem and should come to our assistance. Believe it or not there are instances where people are now going back to settle down in Sri Lanka simply to safeguard their own properties. On behalf of others like me who are currently facing similar problems I appeal once again to the government or Foreign Employment Bureau to help us. P.G. Perera |
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